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Here is the monthly Food Blog Income Report for February 2019 – follow along with me to see how I’m growing my blog into a business!
Hi guys! It seems like February just sped on by. I don’t even really remember what happened!
I did get my office set up with a desk and a nice big monitor. I can finally stop hunching over my 13″ laptop to do my work.
That said, we’re another month into this journey. It’s been a challenging month with our new house and all the work we have been putting into it, along with trying to run this blog and work a full time job.
Sometimes life is hard, but I truly believe a little sacrifice now will be totally worth it in the long run.
Why I Started Went Here 8 This
To be candid, the reason I started my blog was to make money.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE food blogging. Creating new recipes, photographing them and getting to share them with the world is a passion of mine. I want everyone to be enjoying their food as much as I do!
That said, food blogging is HARD work, especially while working a full time job. It really only leaves me with early mornings, evenings and weekends to work on the blog.
Learn How To Start a Food Blog and Make Money
I have always had the goal of retiring early from my day job. But in order to make that happen, I needed to start generating some income on the side, and what better way than to start my own business?
I’m here to tell you that you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it.
I’m not going to sugar coat anything in these blog income reports. I’m in the red again in February. That’s because I live by the philosophy that you have to spend money to make money.
Yes, you can start a blog for a minimal amount of money. But in my opinion, if you want to see serious growth you:
1) need to spend SOME money. Not all the money, but you will need to make some investments in your business; and
2) be willing to work harder than you’ve ever worked before. Food blogging is competitive. But there definitely is a lot of money to be made.
These income reports are going to show you how much money I really make, before and after expenses. (but before taxes)
I started Went Here 8 This in October 2016, but didn’t have a CLUE what I was doing until mid way through 2018. I have used a lot of resources to include attending blogger conferences, joining Food Blogger Pro and reading as much as I can in Facebook groups and other media to learn everything I can about making this blog a successful business.
February 2019 Blog Traffic:
February was a pretty decent month. I definitely saw traffic spikes around Valentine’s Day, which is great given the time I took to promote Valentine’s Day content. It’s always nice to see some payback. Overall my page views were down slightly, but that’s to be expected with the short month.
Traffic overview:
My total page views for February were 57,477.
My traffic for February 2019 came from the following top 5 sources:
- Organic: 46%
- Social: 39%
- Pinterest: 76%
- Facebook: 22%
- Twitter: 1%
- YouTube: 1%
- Direct: 10%
- Referral: 3%
- Email/Other: 2%
One of my goals for 2019 is to improve my link building so I am able to get more traffic from other sites, as well as look better in the eyes of Google. If you want to learn more about link building, check out this presentation given by Casey Markee.
February 2019 Income Report
I had made small amounts on my blog for the past 6 months, but only averaging around $50/month. In December 2018, I qualified for Mediavine (an ad network) and that has become a game changer.
In February 2019, my blog income and expenses were as follows:
- On page advertising (Mediavine): $641.11, with an average RPM of $14.03.
- Amazon Affiliate Marketing: $85.44
TOTAL INCOME: $726.55
My total expenses for February 2019 were $1,787.28, another anomaly this month due to some cash outlays I made to get my home office set up. The March income report will better reflect normal monthly expenses. (note some of the below links are affiliate links – I earn a small commission if you buy through these).
Monthly Expenses:
- Hosting (Cloudways): $12.80. Good hosting is a must. If you’re on Bluehost, you’re going to want to switch now. Cloudways is a great option to make sure your site is always up, and also helps site speed, which is extremely important.
- WordPress Support Plan: $113.00. I use Nerdpress to manage all the technical/security aspects of my website. Because me and tech do not get along. It’s better if we have space.
- Imagify Image Compression: $4.99. If you’re not compressing your images, you need to be. This is a great plugin that doesn’t affect the quality of you images too much.
- Food Blogger Pro Membership: $23.25. Learn more about Food Blogger Pro.
- Social Warfare Pro: $2.42. A lot of people have jumped ship on this plugin for social sharing, but I still love it and will continue to use it until it is no longer viable.
- Tailwind: $19.98. An absolute must for scheduling Pins on Pinterest. I also use it to schedule Instagram posts.
- Link in Profile: $9.99. Includes an option on Instagram for people to click on a link to bring them to this site.
- Lightroom CC: $9.99. I use Lightroom for ALL my photo editing.
- Askimet: $3.00. I use this to protect my blog from spam.
- Virtual Assistant Services: $300.00. I have a Facebook VA because I DESPISE Facebook.
Total Regular Monthly Expenses: $499.42
One Time Expenses for February:
- New equipment and services: $1,179.86. This was for the purchase of a desk, chair and monitor so I can stop hunching over my tiny laptop. Also for a few miscellaneous photo lighting purchases.
- Yearly charge of $108.00 to the State of CA for business fees. CA always has to get paid…
TOTAL EXPENSES FOR FEBRUARY: $1,787.28
So for the month of February 2019, I am showing a loss of $1,060.73. A little less than last month.
**Note: many of the above expenses I pay yearly to get a discount, but have annualized them so you can see what the monthly expenses come out to.
I did not include food expense in the above. I do deduct food expenses on my taxes so if you want to know what I spent, its $141.90. We do, however, eat all the food I make for the blog.
Want to know what the best plugins are? Check out this post for the Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for Food Blogs.
**In December, I signed up for a WordPress support plan with Andrew Wilder from Nerdpress. My site speed has increased immensely, which I fully believe results in higher traffic. If you’re not tech oriented, I highly recommend checking out one of his support plans.
What Am I Doing for Next Month?
In January, I had an SEO audit with Casey Markee which is the best thing I have done for my blog yet. I highly recommend his services if you want to grow your blog. You can find him over at MEDIAWYSE.
So, for the rest of the year, I will be working hard to improve the SEO on all current and older blog posts. SO. MUCH. WORK. You’ll get to see the outcome of this in the coming months income reports so make sure you check back next month to see how it’s going! Sign up to get regular email updates from Went Here 8 This:
Want to Make Money Blogging?
Just get started. Seriously. Dive in and learn everything you can possibly can and get that blog up and running. Hopefully this income report will inspire you to do so.
Because like I said, I knew NOTHING when I started. And if I can do it, you can do it.
Learn How To Start and Blog and Make Money
Wow! Thanks for breaking down the numbers about the expenses. I think all bloggers dream of having an excellent VA to take some work off of our hands.
Totally! I can’t wait to make enough that I can hand over more things 🙂
Thank you for sharing your monthly report Danielle. I also just started with Mediavine in January and it has been a positive improvement. Casey Markee mentioned you in the you tube video, so glad I came over to your blog.
I was flattered that he mentioned me! Mediavine really is such a game changer. It’s amazing to finally be making some money doing something we love, right? Thanks for stopping by Hani!
Absolutely, I didn’t think I’d qualify but it worked out. Have a great day Danielle.
You too!
Thank you for sharing this report. It’s always very helpful to see others’ income reports
You’re welcome Erin!